Tending Our Garden

Each of us is given a garden to tend. To create and keep a beautiful garden takes time and effort. Based on Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury, England.

Transcript

Welcome to the Happiness Podcast.

I'm Dr.

Robert Puff.

I don't know about you,

But I love gardens,

Especially ones that have lots of flowers.

And if you're like me,

You may visit many of the public gardens around the world.

Well,

I just got back from vacation to England.

Well,

One of the places that I visited and stayed at was called Momesbury.

You may have heard of it because it's considered the oldest town in England.

And the first king of England is actually buried there.

I don't know if this is true,

But that's what I was told.

Well,

At Momesbury,

They have the world's famous Abbey House Gardens that are open every day and you can actually stay there as a guest through Airbnb.

It was beyond exquisite.

It's on about five acres and it truly has some of the most astonishingly beautiful gardens in the world.

Well,

Because I stayed there,

I got to know the owners and found out the history of these beautiful gardens.

And this is what I found out.

It had been previously owned by some nuns and because of financial difficulties,

They weren't able to keep up the grounds.

So when the man who purchased it from the nuns,

He realized that it had a lot of potential,

But nothing had been done.

And it really was just five acres of weeds.

He had since died,

But his daughter-in-law,

Who I got to know pretty well,

Told us a story that he had loved gardening.

And he saw such potential there that he spent the rest of his life,

Which was many years,

Making this place beautiful.

Like I said,

Considered one of those beautiful gardens in the world.

And she told me he just loved gardening.

He would go every day out to his gardens and make them more beautiful,

More elegant,

More worthy of what the grounds actually potentially could be.

And when he was done,

They truly became a work of art,

His art,

And a place now that people from all over the world go to visit.

If you want to see pictures of them,

Just look up the town M-A-L-M-E-S-B-U-R-Y and look for the Abbey House.

And they're called the Abbey House Gardens.

Now the question you may be wondering is,

What does this have to do with happiness,

Dr.

Puff?

Well,

When I was there,

Something came to me,

Because I saw the pictures of what it looked like before he moved in.

And of course,

I saw what it looked like now.

And it was quite a difference.

The previous owners didn't do anything to improve or make the place more beautiful.

But he,

With his passion,

Made it something truly breathtaking.

And I think our lives are like that.

Each of us is given,

Metaphorically,

Five acres.

And guess what?

We can do whatever we want with that.

We can let it go to a waste.

We can let it wear out.

We can do nothing to it.

We may actually make it worse.

Or like this gentleman,

We can make our gardens beautiful.

It is a choice for all of us.

And it's a choice we make every day,

Because it took this man many years to transform this dilapidated old Abbey into one of the spectacular places to visit in the world.

Because every day,

Each day,

He went out there and did something to improve his gardens.

And the question we can ask ourselves is,

Each day,

What am I doing to improve my five acres,

The life that I have today?

Are there things that I'm doing that are making my life better?

Or am I doing things to let my gardens run down?

I think it's a beautiful metaphor for our lives.

And we have to ask ourselves,

What are we doing to make our lives more beautiful?

If you've been listening to this podcast for a while,

You'll see that I often say,

We can make our lives more beautiful.

We can have beautiful lives.

But the key is,

It does take effort.

If we do nothing,

Our lives can come to ruin.

But if we,

Every day,

Take steps to improve our lives,

To make our lives better than every day,

Our gardens,

Our lives,

Will become more beautiful.

It's based on the second law of thermodynamics,

Which states,

With time,

Things go from order to disorder.

So if things are going to go from disorder to order,

We have to do something to change that.

And when we see a garden,

We're going to say,

Wow,

There's been someone working here.

I may not see the gardeners right now,

But someone's done something to make this place beautiful.

And it's true with our own lives.

If our lives are going to become beautiful,

We have to do something.

We have to proactively,

Every day,

Each day,

Get out there and do things to make our lives better.

Now,

It is true that some people inherit a garden that's already in good shape.

Think of the family that was living where I stayed.

At the Abbey Gardens,

This family had inherited it from their father.

And what they had to do was keep making improvements,

Making it better,

But keep it beautiful.

So metaphorically,

What that means in our own lives,

Some of us come from families that are very loving,

Very caring,

And our lives initially aren't that hard.

Of course,

Our lives can go awry if we're not careful,

But it is a little easier for some of us.

Others of us have very difficult early upbringings.

And it's like we've inherited a garden of weeds.

So we have to do a lot to make it beautiful.

And if we do,

We can truly have the beautiful garden,

But it is going to take effort.

It won't come naturally.

So we can all have beautiful gardens.

But whether we've inherited a beautiful garden now,

Or we have to create it,

It's in either case going to take work.

It always takes work to maintain something beautiful.

If it's beautiful,

There are things going into it to keeping it beautiful.

I mean,

Think of our bodies.

If we smoke,

If we drink,

If we don't take care of ourselves,

They're going to get out of shape.

If we meet someone who looks really good and is in great shape,

We're pretty much guaranteed that they're doing things to keep that shape,

Particularly as I get older.

We're like that.

We're like the gardens.

In order to maintain beautiful gardens,

We have to do things.

We have to commit to things every day that make our lives better and decide what those areas are.

Now there are many episodes of the Happiness Podcast talking about ways that we can make our gardens beautiful.

And there are lots of other people out there who have great messages about how to make our lives beautiful and better.

But today what we want to talk about is the commitment to improve our lives and realize that if we don't do anything,

Our lives not only will not get better,

They're going to get worse.

And that's because of the second law of thermodynamics,

Which says if we leave something alone,

Then with time it's going to go more chaotic.

And the garden is such a good analogy of this.

We can have the most beautiful garden in the world,

Like the Abbey Garden.

But if no one tends it anymore,

Then it's going to go back to the way it was.

With time,

Things go to disarray.

So we have to commit to ourselves.

And even if we get to the place where,

Wow,

Our lives are awesome,

They're going so well,

We have to keep doing the things that got us there.

I see that so often,

Where people's lives improve,

And now that they're better,

They start experimenting with things that aren't really good for them,

Or more so they stop doing the things that got them to where they're at.

Like they're in great spiritual,

Emotional,

Physical shape,

But they stop doing those things.

And guess what?

Like the garden,

We can all get out of shape.

So we have to commit to every day,

Throughout the day,

Doing things to make our lives better,

To keep our lives going well.

And when we do that,

What will happen is,

We can have the most beautiful gardens throughout our lives,

All the way to the end.

Because our lives can be as beautiful as we commit to.

Nothing external can keep us from that.

Because guess what?

We are the ones,

And we only are the ones,

That create our gardens.

I know some of the listeners right now have very challenging lives.

But what can happen is,

When we realize that,

Oh,

I'm in charge of my garden,

I can make it more beautiful,

Even with these very challenging circumstances.

Again,

This is what the Happiness Podcast is all about.

Not that things have to be a certain way,

But no matter what way they are,

We can make them beautiful.

When we realize that we are in control,

We are the gardeners of our life,

And we can make our lives as beautiful as we want,

And keep improving it.

And when it's good,

We will commit to keep it going well.

It's about commitment.

It's about time.

And that we have a responsibility to make our gardens beautiful,

And to keep them beautiful.

Now,

I know we have people that we deeply care about,

That may let their gardens go very poorly.

And that may sadden us.

So what we have to focus in on is ourselves,

Keeping our gardens beautiful.

And perhaps they'll be inspired by us,

But they may not be.

But I think if we tend to an else garden,

One,

It's not going to work,

And two,

Our gardens are going to start not doing as well,

Because we're focused on others.

We have to focus on our own.

And from that beautiful garden,

We invite people in.

We invite people to share in our lives.

And when we have time,

We can teach them the things that we've learned.

We can help them,

But we realize they're responsible for their garden.

We're responsible for our garden.

And sometimes people don't want to work on their gardens.

And that's okay.

We still love them.

We may still spend time with them.

But mostly,

We're focused on our gardens.

Are we doing things to keep our gardens beautiful?

Because if we do,

If we really commit to keeping our gardens beautiful every day,

Then guess what?

We will have throughout our lives beautiful gardens,

No matter what.

As I so often say,

We can all have beautiful lives.

It's in our hands.

It is work,

But it's worth it.

And sometimes it can take years to make the garden the type of place that we want it to be.

But let's commit.

Let's do that.

And let's keep working to make our world a beautiful place.

Thank you for joining me on the Happiness Podcast.

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And until next time,

Accept what is,

Love what is.

Reviews

Great analogy for life. I want to visit these gardens 🌼🌷🌸🌺🌳🌱🌺🦔

Thanks for a terrific point of view!

WONDERFUL analogy and Wise Counsel❣️🙏🏻💕

07-25-2019
Listened once again and, once again, LOVED this bit of Wisdom❣️🙏🏻💕

Positive and encouraging message

Beautiful podcast!

Great analogy & reminder! Loved it! Thank you. ✨💫🙏🏼💞

Excellent advice.

A wonderful analogy of gardens. Thank you. 🌷🌷🌷

Loved the analogy of tending to your garden. Blessings on your Gift.
💞🛐✌🌎🕉